Ware Hunting Quality Fish For Southeast Division Everstart Tournament On The Big O
Kent Ware of Wadmalaw Island, SC is coming off of a good year in the Southeast Everstart Series! Photo courtesy FLW Outdoors.
It took 32 pounds to win the Gator Division BFL tournament on Lake Okeechobee last weekend, but so far Kent Ware has not found that same mother lode of bass with just one more day of practice before the first Southeast Division EverStart tournament of 2013 opens on the Big O.
“It’s been a little slow for me in practice. I don’t know a whole lot about this lake,” said the Wadmalaw Island, S.C. Angler who was the Southeast Division EverStart Angler of the Year in 2012. “I’ve kind of pieced some things together, but just can’t find any big fish so far. I am catching plenty of small fish, but I sure am not on the quality fish.”
Ware did very well on Okeechobee last year when he finished 6th in his first ever tournament on the famed Florida lake. He followed that top 10 with 19th place on Lake Seminole, 2nd on his closest home lake, Santee Cooper, and finished at Lake Guntersville in 46th place, earning a check in all four tournaments for a total prize of $20,878, plus the points championship. Not a bad year, considering he was buried in the standings the two previous years he fished the Southeast EverStart Division, finishing 206th in 2008 and 178th in 2009.
“I was really blessed last season. I really enjoyed it. Every tournament last year was tough, but I tend to do a little better when it is tough on everybody. When it’s a slugfest I don’t do as well.”
Ware said everybody he has seen and talked to have been doing pretty much the same things he has been doing – with the same results.
“I’ve been throwing a variety of reaction baits, flipping, fishing a worm, a Senko, topwater, slowing things down. Nothing seem sot do better than anything else. It is just a matter of covering water,” he said.
“The water temperature is right, we’ve got a new moon coming Friday so there have got to be some females moving up. The males certainly are already there, waiting on them.”
The problem, he said, may be the high water – two feet higher than last year in the same tournament – which may allow the fish to move miles further back in the vegetation.
“I don’t know how these fish react with high water. They have a lot more habitat they can get into to get away from us.”
His strategy Wednesday for the final day of practice will be to tie on some fast-moving baits and cover as much different-looking water as possible.
“I’m going to go a little shallower than what I have been doing. The big ones are either further in or further out than where I have been. They are either staged up or laying back in the vegetation and there is no question some of the guys who are familiar with the lake know where they are.”
Pros will fish for a top award of $40,000 plus a Ranger Z518 with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. Co-anglers will vie for a Ranger Z117 with 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $5,000 if Ranger Cup guidelines are met.
The EverStart Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division consists of four tournaments and competitors will be fishing for valuable points in each division that could earn them the Strike King Angler of the Year title, which allows them to fish the 2014 Forrest Wood Cup.
After Lake Okeechobee this weekend, the Southeast EverStart Series moves to Lake Guntersville Feb. 28-March3, Lake Seminole April 4-6, and finishes up on Wheeler Lake May 9-11.
FLW EverStart Series Southeast Division
Jan 10-12, 2013
Lake Okeechobee
Scott Driver Recreation Area
